Trump DOJ Surrenders to Federal Judges in Humiliating Defeat

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1:15Michael Popok:Well, we got some breaking news about the Department of Justice and its leadership. They have finally folded in the face of two separate federal court orders and are now willing to accept a new U.S. attorney in New Jersey, not named Alina Haba or anybody else, somebody that's been picked by the district judges of New Jersey. Mr. Frazier, Robert Frazier, is now the new acting interim U.S. attorney, New Jersey. It took two separate federal judges, one Judge Brand and the other one Judge Karashi, to excoriate and rebuke the Trump administration in the last week before they finally folded and accepted Mr.

1:58Michael Popok:Frazier, who's been in their office, in that office for over 20 years, to run the office. This is what it takes to hold the Trump administration and its Department of Justice and Pam Bondi accountable, apparently. You have to threaten to drag Alina Habba in for testimony under oath about whether she's secretly running the office or not before they fold and agree to the appointment of an appropriate interim U.S. attorney until they get around to getting a final confirmed U.S. attorney in the next 120 days. I'm Michael Popak. I got the Department of Justice letter in my hand. Let's get to it here.

2:35Michael Popok:I'm Midas Touch and Legal AF. Okay. Judge Brand is the chief judge of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, but he sat by designation in New Jersey because of the conflict of interest, because under the Federal Vacancy Reform Act, the judges of the district pick the replacement, which they just did, if there's a vacancy. Judge Brand got pissed off after taking Alina Habba out six or eight months ago because she was illegally appointed. He then ruled in the last two weeks that the attempt to run the office with three different people was no better and was actually illegal under the Vacancy Reform Act.

3:19Michael Popok:And he threatened the Trump administration in his ruling that if they didn't get a properly appointed person under the Vacancy Reform Act or let the district court judges do it for them, that he was going to start dismissing indictments and potentially open the jailhouse doors and let criminals out because they were flirting with that disaster. That was Judge Brand. He then asked for supplemental briefing on that very issue. Then we fast forward to four days ago, five days ago, Judge Karashi in New Jersey, also federal judge, used to work in the U.S. Attorney's Office. He got so pissed off at our hearing that he threw out of his hearing the appellate judge, Sorry, the head of the appellate division for the District of New Jersey right out of his courtroom, Mark Coyne.

4:08Michael Popok:Mr. Coyne, you're gone. And he said, I'm going to get to the bottom by asking an assistant U.S. attorney who's running that office. So he started asking questions. He said, how often have you seen Alina Habba in that office who got fired by Judge Brand? Not often. Well, has she met with Phil Lamparello, Jordan Fox, or Ari Fantecchio, who are the three assistant U.S. attorneys who are running around acting like they run the office illegally? Has she met with them? Well, I'm not aware. Oh, so it could be happening, but you're not aware. That's when Coyne got thrown out for trying to step in front of the moving bus and said she's not running the office.

4:50Michael Popok:I'm not hearing from you right now. You're not sworn in and you're not, you haven't appeared in this case. Goodbye. There's the door. He then set in April, moved to May, a deadline, a drew a line in the sand for Alina Habba to testify under oath about whether she's running the office secretly working for Pam Bondi. Now, of course, Trump administration doesn't want Alina Habba testifying. So they have now agreed that the district court judges and who they picked, which is Robert Frazier from that office, who's been there for 20 years, can be the acting interim for the next 20 days. Here's the letter.

5:32Michael Popok:Let me read it to you. This is by Mark Coyne, the guy who was thrown out of the office by Judge Karashi, thrown out of the courtroom. He's now signing as supervisory assistant U.S. attorney and chief of the appeals division. Dear Chief Judge Brand, I write to notify the court, and by the way, he's also writing about the case involving Judge Karashi, which is the Nawawala case. He's writing in the Torres case. I write to notify the court and opposing counsel that exercising its authority under 28 U.S.C. Section 546, that's the Vacancy Reform Act, the district court, meaning the 12 judges of New Jersey, have appointed Robert Frazier as the U.S.

6:19Michael Popok:attorney for the District of New Jersey. That's for the next 120 days. Mr. Frazier has served in the office with distinction for more than two decades. He was the senior trial counsel. Furthermore, his appointment filed consultation between the district court and the Department of Justice senior leadership. Consultations the government had represented to the court that it was willing to pursue. So that's an indication that Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche, maybe Alina Hava, who knows, it's not identified, and the district court judges, the chief judge, had a conversation about Frazier. Accordingly, the government respectfully requests that the court stay the deadline for the government's supplemental brief in Torres.

7:03Michael Popok:In other words, the judge was like, why should I not find you in contempt. Why should I not, this is Judge Brand, open the jailhouse doors and find that all of your indictments are invalid because you didn't have a U.S. attorney in place? But they go further. This is how troubled the Department of Justice was by having Alina Habba, the image of Alina Habba taking the stand was so frightening that they're willing to go back and get new indictments, superseding indictments in existing cases with Robert Frazier's name on it rather than continue to argue that they were properly running that office.

7:41Michael Popok:This is a win for justice, for sure. But look what has to happen. Coyne has to get thrown out of a courtroom. Judge Karashi has to threaten to put Alina Habba and others under oath and a hearing. Judge Brand has to threaten to open the jailhouse doors. And then they go, yeah, we'll take Robert Frazier as the new U.S. attorney. Yeah, that's a really great idea. Yeah, you should do that.

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9:20Michael Popok:There are five other jurisdictions out of 93 federal districts, federal U.S. attorney's offices for each of the federal districts that they still don't have a U.S. attorney properly. Yeah, we've had and we've had people resign after Alina Hava got fired. Lindsey Halligan resigned in disgrace as the Eastern District of Virginia prosecutor. I mean, the three, I mean, I would say there's five. We could have a debate about this. The five of the top prosecutor's offices for the feds, in my view. I'll make it six. Seven. Southern District New York covers Manhattan. Eastern District of New York covers Brooklyn.

10:10Michael Popok:Central District of California covers LA. Northern District of California, Silicon Valley, and San Francisco. Eastern District of Virginia, that's a lot of things doing government patents and that kind of thing. Eastern District of Virginia and District of New Jersey. I mean, I'll throw Chicago in there too, the Northern District of Illinois. These are important, not that the other ones aren't, but these are important. They have the highest volume. They have drug cases, national security cases, treason cases, espionage cases, patent cases, trademark cases, copyright cases, things having to do with AI, immigration cases, all come through these various places.

10:55Michael Popok:Yeah, we could throw in Maryland. We could throw in Connecticut. it, but those are the ones. And to have these inexperienced non-prosecutors running these offices or these junior prosecutors running these offices is an affront to the American justice system, an affront to the Constitution. And finally, finally, but look at the lengths to which federal judges had to go and they were willing to go there. Contempt, opening jailhouse doors, putting Alina Habba under oath. And then the Trump administration cried uncle and said, we'll take Frazier. And pressure from platforms like Legal AF and Midas Touch, helping to draw attention and drill down and give heavy artillery on these types of issues.

11:47Michael Popok:I've got great news. Now's the time to continue to promote Midas Touch. Hit the subscribe button here. Legal AF, my YouTube channel, hit the subscribe button there. We're growing everybody to meet the moment. CBS's loss is Midas Touch's gain and ultimately, hopefully, Legal AF. Scott McFarlane, now the Washington DC bureau chief for Midas Touch, for all things Midas, doing a daily show on news. Scott McFarlane reports on the Midas Touch network. Can't wait to work shoulder to shoulder with Scott McFarlane. First, I hope, of many, many announced additions and growth strategies for Midas Touch, now is the moment to meet the moment and grow midterm, election, and beyond.

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